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Book Reviews
 The
Grammar of Fantasy: An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories
by Gianni Rodari
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Sent out to Reggio-L Nov. 1996:
One of the most elusive characteristics of what I've seen in Reggio
Emilia is the relationship between fantasy and reality in the daily
doings there. In a new book from Teachers & Writers Collaborative
(5 Union Square West, NY, NY 10003-3306) we have the theoretical
basis for this easy movement between fantasy and fact. Called The
Grammar of Fantasy , written in beautiful, accessible and poetic
language, translated seamlessly by Jack Zipes, a teacher who wants
to learn how to help children make stories has here all the tools
she or he needs.
Playing with language is something that comes easily to some of
us. It feels like a gift, like perfect pitch. But Gianni Rodari
shows us how to invitae others into the games we play with language.
He tried this out at Diana School in Reggio Emilia and gave a series
of lectures there in 1972. This book tells us some of the stories
he made up, but far more important shows us the process of making
up stories, by oneself, in a group, and giving the tools to the
children so they can do it also. Their stories are quite perfect,
and, like children's drawing and painting, have a quality which
charms both adults and children in the audience.
Schools have traditionally relegated imagination to a very small
place, valuing memory and attention much more highly. This book
leads us into imagination. It shows us, as have Sylvia Ashton-Warner
and Vivian Gussin Paley, how we can help children use their images
— pictures in their minds which have importance and meaning to them
— and make wonderful creations from them.
So Rodari talks about "The Fantastic Binomial" that is,
the ability of the mind, given two words that normally are not related,
say, streetcar and refrigerator, to make a connection, a story,
that is satisfying. Children can do this too, as is illustrated
in the book with stories about "light and shoes" and "dog
and closet". What would the children in your class do, if presented
with such word-pairs?
And he talks about hypotheses: What if a lion walked into the police
station? And "fairytale salad" What if Cinderella bumped
into Tom Thumb on the way to meeting the wolf, what then?
In a chapter called "Recasting Fairy Tales" the Cinderella
story is analyzed (Cinderella (A) lives in the house of her father
(B) and stands in a relationship to B, different from the relationship
that her stepsisters (C and D) have with B. While B, C, and D go
to the palace, (E) where there is some kind of event the ball (F),
A remains alone. However, thanks to the intervention of G, A, too,
is able to go to E and makes an extraordinary impression on the
prince (H). Etc.
Then Rodari shows us how to move further and further from the original
cast. We use the structure of the Cinderella story, changing the
characters and the place but keeping the SHAPE of the story, weaving
it until Carlo (who replaces Cinderella as A), the Count's stable
boy, with the help of the cabin boy,( who replaces the fairy godmother)
stows away on the yacht (replacing the Ball, E) taking the Count
(who replaces Cinderella's father B) and his children (C and D)
on a the vacation trip (F). The yacht is shipwrecked and Carlo gives
a cigarette lighter to the island's medicine man (H) and as a result
is celebrated as the god of fire.
In another section of this rich book Rodari introduces us to Propp's
cards:
A German named Propp analyzed the themes of fairy tales into their
elements. Cards were made for the children, to help them construct
stories. I found even the translated titles of these cards difficult,
and have rewritten them in terms I think could be illustrated for
English- speaking children:
1. Someone goes away from home.
2. A rule is given to that person.
3. The rule is broken.
4. The villain tries to find out what's going on.
5. The villain receives information about his victim.
6. The villain attempts to deceive his victim.
7. The victim gets fooled and so (unwittingly) helps his enemy.
. . . Etc. (There are 31)
The children use these cards to generate stories: a father leaves
the house and tells his children not to throw flower vases from
the balcony onto the heads of pedestrians (1, 2, 3); a difficult
task is to go to the cemetery at midnight (25) etc.
Stepping back from the specifics of the book, what we have here
is a map into a world neglected in most schooling, but not at campfires
nor at bedtimes in nurturant homes. We have the enchantment of story
and the science of story, connected. People have made up stories
for very good reasons, and need them as surely as we need food and
drink. When schooling avoids storytelling, the schooling maladapts
us for being human.
When Reggio children study the shadows they draw a lot of shadows
-- from imagination, from observation, after tracing real shadows
on sidewalks etc. This is representation of experience, or representation
of theory and not experience, but it is all scientific inquiry.
These hypotheses, once drawn, can be compared with future experience,
and found correct or incorrect or, interestingly, sometimes correct.
They are, if you will, stories: the bird shadow will fly into the
cage (taped bars on the wall) and back out this afternoon; things
that move, like people and butterflies, have shadows that move,
while things that stay still, like trees and houses, have shadows
that stay still. Whether true or false, these stories help children
examine their world more carefully, thinking like scientists think.
I believe in what I have come to call "hot cognition"
-- the driving of learning by emotional attachments or passions.
Stories always engross humans, so they are rich stuff of which to
make learning. They have internal logics which differ, in kind,
from mathematical logic: a man changes into a cat passing under
a barrier. To change back he must pass under the barrier again,
from the other side. If he goes across the barrier as a cat, he
must go over it, to avoid its magical properties. Do you see?
When Rodari helps us see connections between science or math and
story he helps us knit our lives back together. When he helps us
see how education and art come together, he helps us do our jobs
well. Rodari says: "By using stories and those fantastic methods
that produce them, we help children to enter reality through the
window instead of through the door. It is more fun. Therefore, it
is more useful."
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